


Something Else

by Virodeil



Series: Unexpected Reinforcements and Something Else [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: (implied) – Freeform, Age Regression/De-Aging, Big-Brother Syndrome SHIELD, Canon-Typical Violence, Cross-cultural, Cuddling and Snuggling, Cultural Differences, Cultural References, Culture Clashes, Culture Shock, Deja Vu, Domestic Fluff, Fluffy Flavours, Gen, Intersex Jotunn (Marvel), Jotunn Biology (Marvel), Jotunn Culture, Jotunn Physiology, Laufey (Marvel) Gets a Hug, Laufey (Marvel) Has Issues, Laufey (Marvel) Needs a Hug, Laufey (Marvel)’s Good Parenting, Mama laufey, Multiple headcanons, Other, POV Tony Stark, Parent Tony Stark, Post-Infancy Breastfeeding, Protective Tony Stark, Reincarnation, Safehouses, Single-Gendered Species, Slice of Life, Time Skips, Tony Stark Does What He Wants, Tony Stark Gets a Hug, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark’s Brand of Language, adorable kids, more tags added as we go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:08:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 42
Words: 8,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28971852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Virodeil/pseuds/Virodeil
Summary: Tony drives the nuke to outer space. Tony falls down the closing portal. Tony is caught by Hulk. Hulk roars at Tony. Tony wakes up and…. Well, what then?(Sequel toUnexpected Reinforcements.)
Relationships: Laufey & Tony Stark, Laufey (Marvel) & Loki (Marvel), Tony Stark & Jötnar (Marvel), Tony Stark/Laufey (Marvel)
Series: Unexpected Reinforcements and Something Else [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2122080
Comments: 99
Kudos: 84





	1. Confusion

**Author's Note:**

> Well, with how enthusiastic people have been, the muse got ignited… figuratively. So, enjoy!

Tony Stark the Iron Man wakes up with a start, utterly discombobulated.

Somebody has just roared at him, loudly, in anger and sorrow and panic, with a promise of revenge to other people if he doesn’t wake up soon. Or maybe it’s _two_ somebodies, because he hears two different roars entangling, both in his ears and in his mind, from two different voices.

The juxtaposed and overlapped duality isn’t only in the noises, though, but also in the _feels_ of things. He knows he’s still in his severely battered Iron Man suit; but, at the same time, he’s also laid out naked in a cold somewhere under a mountain of furs with more of such underneath his _so very noodly_ body. He also _knows_ that he’s cradled high up in a huge someone’s arms, armour and all, and yet he can also feel many people he considers family and friends congregating round him, panicking and grieving nearly as much as the roarer does.

He is Anthony Edward Stark, and yet… someone else – _also_ someone else.

He opens his eyes, and feels a pang of confusing disappointment when the view that greets him is that of Hulk’s green complexion, not… blue?


	2. Duality

The tower is repared. The city is in the process of just that. The new aliens went away quickly without a fuss, let alone an attempt to conquer Earth, bringing a suddenly kiddified Loki with them regardless of Thor’s demands.

Tony should be glad, and he _is_ glad. But, at the same time, he somehow wishes the alien mum’s still there, waiting in his penthouse, even if it’d mean _Loki’s_ there, too.

Life trundles along like usual, _normal_ , and yet it feels _wrong_. When he turns to his side, he _somehow_ expects not Pepper but… someone else; not Happy, either, but… a bunch of trainees?

Worse yet, when he dreams of the invasion, it mingles with yet another scene in another place with a bunch of other people – _blue-skinned_ people – battling against more primitively armed Chi’tauri led by a big, purple somebody. He’s fighting alone, but then he’s fighting together with… _other_?… blue people. He even carries a smaller, struggling blue someone away from the battle, alike yet unlike when he carried Agent Pretender to the top of his tower. _Unlike_ because he’s got a _personal stake_ in _this_ someone’s safety.

It’s creepy, and it’s _not_ getting better – this duality.


	3. Diagnosis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DWB: Doctors Without Borders, a humanitarian healthcare organisation

Pepper claims Tony’s got severe PTSD and untreated concussion, possibly brain damage from the latter, when she sees and hears how Tony hasn’t slept much all this while. She bribes, blackmails and practically drags him to the medical floor of Stark Tower, the moment she sees his rumpled self, nearly a month after the battle.

Tony wishes he _still_ barred himself from the outside world except when in a _fully insulated_ Iron Man suit.

He wishes he’d fought harder when Pepper dragged him here when Dr. Tioma, on loan from DWB, stares wide-eyed at him, and acts like they’ve just caught themself from _bowing to him_ , instead of… some more doctory thing.

“Mister Stark will be all right with me, Miss Potts. Would you please give us some privacy so that I could begin to examine Mister Stark?” they tell Pepper, and she goes away with a thanks and a nod. But when the two are alone, the doctor _doesn’t_ begin with the examination – not a _medical_ examination, at any rate.

They instead ask, in a tone that Tony can’t even guess, “Are you familiar with the name Farbauti, Mister Stark?”

And Tony flinches.

The name _rings_ in his mind.


	4. Reincarnation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for potentially sensitive topic related to a brief thought of religious concepts at the beginning.

Raised by a Catholic mother, even if Maria Stark actually didn’t do much in the “raising” department, Tony’s rather familiar with the concept of _in_ carnation – an incorporeal someone materialising in a body.

_Rein_ carnation, though….

And Dr. Tioma claims he’s a _reincarnated_ person, specifically someone named Farbauti.

The blue people from his jumbled nightmares are called **milaðen** , or “Children of Ýmir,” otherwise – especially to the Asgardians – “the jötnar” or “the frost giants,” and he _still_ belongs to them, because his “soul” is purportedly _still_ a **milaða** ’s.

The squirmy, pleading, smaller someone he carried away from a battle – and it’s _indeed_ a similar battle, just in another place called Ýmirheim or Jötunheim, _millennia ago_ – was his _spouse_ , who’s _twice younger_ than he was, who’s _still alive till now_.

There are _more_ than these little-but-huge factoids waiting to ambush him, he can read it on Dr. Tioma’s expression, but he’s _thankful_ that they refrain from spouting off those things, from freaking him out _further_.

He’s freaked out _enough_ already.

Now he wonders: How much has Tony Stark been there all along and how much has “Farbauti Faukkistr-childe”? Will this overlapped duality continue? Where there _still_ be Tony in the end, or just “Úti”?


	5. Identity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: The treatment you see below is _not_ indication of behaviour for all doctors, not even fictional ones, not even for this one usually.

Tony _snarls_ when Dr. Tioma tries to address him by Farbauti.

“I _am_ Tony, whoever I was. If you don’t respect me in any way else, respect me in this.”

And the doctor, themself a **milaða** in a “warm-weather form,” stoicly performs a strange bow – an _obeisance_ – half a bow, half a courtsy, with a bared neck and hands behind their back – and murmurs, “As you wish, Mister Stark.”

Tony wants to _scream_.

Especially when he then finds _strangely familiar_ little things during meals – a cupful of tasty blue jam to accompany his toast, a bowl of strange not-ice-cream, a cut of beef seared with some rich sauce, and many more – that _sharpen the echoes_.

For a doctor who _seemingly_ defers to him and is invested in his health, Dr. Tioma is _well-versed_ in hounding him into insanity and fear of eating with passive-aggressive actions, disrespecting his _expressed_ wishes in the process.

He skedaddles _far, far away_ from the tower, finally, in his best and stealthiest suit. Nobody knows where he’s going, not even he, though JARVIS proposes several options.

The long journey wrapped in his trusty suit gives him peace of mind for once in what feels like eternity.


	6. Arrangements

Tony ends up in one of his getaway cabins, deep in Australia during the winter there, surrounded by forests and bushlands and bordered by the desert. Half of his instincts doesn’t like it, given his horrible experiences in Afghanistan, but he stubbornly stays in the cabin and putters about in the limited lab he’s got there. He even instructs JARVIS to bring the bots here to keep him company, as long as their departure isn’t trackable and their absence isn’t easily noticed.

_Also_ , despite his growing hatred of his “previous life,” he _still_ rearranges the matters that need his matching facial, DNA, voice and retinal recognitions, in case the echoes aren’t content with just hounding his mind. He even gives further instruction to JARVIS to check and prepare his places in the colder climates in case this cabin becomes too unbearable, and contacts his tailor himself to prepare designs and materials for his clothes from head to toe in increasing sizes, to be adjusted quickly as needed. Because he hasn’t forgotten – _can’t forget_ – that, according to Dr. Tioma, the “frosties” are _three-sexed_ , neutral-gendered, and can somewhat easily flow between shapes and sizes.

` _Go figure. Even **here** , I still can’t escape._`


	7. Apology

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Culture shock in play.

Tony heartily curses the lack of foresight about unobvious escape routes when, one morning, there’s a polite knock at the front DOOR, and JARVIS says THE KNOCKER IS _Dr. Tioma_.

“Is the back door clear?” he nonetheless asks.

“It is, Sir,” J says, _but then continues_ , “Judging by their expression, they are determined to say their piece, Sir. They might have infinite patience, while you do not have infinite number of places to go to.”

In other words: ` _Face them now or run away forever, and the ‘forever’ part isn’t guaranteed anyway._ `

“Fuck,” Tony spits, then stomps to the front door and yanks it open.

He’s prepared for the malpractising doctor to either greet him as politely as they knocked or immediately spout off a list of excuses.

Never in even his wildest dream would he ever have been prepared for an unspeaking Dr. Tioma to immediately _prostate themself on the floor_ with their hands clutched at the small of their back and their bared throat positioned right beside his slippered foot,.

_As if allowing him to crush their throat with his foot_.

Barbaric.

He edges away, freaked out _again_.

“If this is your apology, it’s not accepted! Get up!”


	8. Explanations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a brief mention of Tony's personal experience with unspecified religion in this chapter.

Tony doesn’t wait till the suicidal doctor seats themself in the chair he points them to to rant about the barbarity of it all.

Miraculously, the alien-in-human-form says nothing and listens.

They only speaks when he demands an explanation. But their claim that what they did is the ultimate form of apology especially from a lesser class to a higher one doesn’t help their case _at all_.

“Doctor,” Tony plants his hands on the arms of their chair, sets his face inches from theirs, and looks right into their moss-green eyes despite how discomfitting it’s to clash stares with the _otherworldly_ gaze so close for so long, “I’ve prayed – _really_ prayed – only thrice in my life, and none of it got answered. Now I’m praying I’ll never turn into a frosty, and beg whoever up there to grant it even if it’s the only thing granted in my lifetime. I’m _not_ gonna live like a barbar.”

Dr. Tioma doesn’t budge and looks right back. “But your spouse has been hoping for you to be reborn and rejoined with them, and your children as well.”

Tony scrunches up his nose and straightens up, sighing. He’s _even more_ discouraged. “Just… go away.”


	9. Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for... excessive amount of fluff?

Tony meets the alien mum and… the kiddified Loki?… totally by accident.

Dr. Tioma’s no longer with DWB, but Tony’s no longer based at the tower anyway to bother about it. He’s been visiting his places all round the world, eeling away from his would-be teammates and Fury. And today, he’s been trundling away on an ATV, exploring the purportedly empty Northern Alaska. Only to find the pair _picking berries_ on a weird arrangement of bushes – tall, slim hillocks spread over… miles, judging from how the dirt path goes on.

_And the alien gives him a sunshiny smile in greeting_.

Not a hurt, tired, frazzled mum. Not an offended ruler of awesome but quirkily kitted airpeople, either.

Certainly a beautiful person, though, especially for the smile.

Tony smiles back at them, hesitantly, as he guides his ATV closer.

“Um, you live here?” he stutters out when he’s level with them, after killing the engine. He hates the lame, un-cool delivery right as it escapes his mouth.

But the sunshiny smile comes out again, now looking more… teasing? And they return, “You have just met me again, and you are already asking where I live?”

Tony blushes, for once after _decades_.


	10. Trigger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for discussion of temporary character death.

“You felt familiar, even before. My people would not escort you to where I was, otherwise. But now you are… _you_ ,” is the alien mum’s not-so-helpful explanation on why… she?… now acts familiarly towards Tony. “Loé…. Loé was similar.” She rubs the back of the little limpet clinging to her, as if to comfort herself. Then, hugging the poor kid close despite… his? Her? Their?… wriggling, she continues in a sort-of-wavery, sort-of-croaky voice, “Loé _died_ , briefly. I had not recognised them, before. But a brief moment before… before _that_ , I did. I knew my child was alive, for only a moment, before they died.”

Tony’s ever been cried on by somebody only once, when Anna – Edwin Jarvis’ wife, his second mum, more a mum than his own birth mum – heard of the deaths of his parents. And now he’s cried on by a near-total stranger, while being hugged to death – _figuratively_ , thankfully! It’s… _surreal_. But it also serves to hide his own wet eyes from the pair’s view. Not for the mum, not for the kid, but for _himself_.

Because, if the kid’s recognition was triggered by death, it would mean _Tony also died_ while getting rid of the nuke.


	11. Restarting

“I’m not… whoever-that-was, you know, even if whoever-that-was used to be your spouse or something.” Tony gives the alien mum a sharp glance when she invites him to join the pair for the day.

The alien, now looking very much a typical Earthgard woman with those large boobs, shakes her head, as she reluctantly relinquishes her hold on him. “No,” she whispers, sounding like she’s about to have yet another crying session. “None of us are… like before. I did not get any chance to raise Loé and their twin, and you have led a different life all this while. Let us… just… start again, from the beginning?”

` _Damn. She can pull the doe eyes like a pro!_ `

It doesn’t take much for Tony to cave in, therefore. But, _still_ , “Call me Tony.”

She slumps. “Loé asked for the same,” she grumps quietly.

Tony raises an eyebrow. “You said it yourself: I’ve led a different life. _Totally different_ , I assure you. For one, I’m a human, _and happy to be one_.”

She slumps _further_ , if it’s even possible. “So, I am going to lose you in the next century?”

“Less,” Tony corrects, even as his heart squeezes in sympathy. “Sorry.”


	12. Healing

“Is there anything I can do?” the alien mum – Tony’s _yet_ to get her name! – inquires desperately on Tony’s blunt proclamation of his own impending mortality. “I am a healer. I can source out healing from different realms, as well. Just… tell me?”

Tony shakes his head. “You can’t heal human mortality,” he says, restarting his ATV.

“No, no, not that.” She invites herself up on his ride, kid and half-full berry basket and all, and hugs him from behind as he continues his meandering, now along the path between the strange berry fields. “I mean, something that would _shorten_ your life.” Her voice hitches on the word “shorten,” and she squeezes him tighter for a moment.

Tony flinches, inwardly. It doesn’t help that the kid is beginning to climb over him, seeming eager to escape… their? Her?… mum for the time being, and one of… her?… little hands… happens?… to land on his arc reactor, before it slides away and she falls onto his lap with a squeak, giving him a mouthful of thick, long black hair in the process.

` _Yeah, nope, not a chance. Not yet, at least. Nobody’s gonna touch **my arc reactor**. Not for any reason._`


	13. Laufey-Queen

The alien mum straightens up only when they’re approaching civilisation – clumps of cave-like structures up on the distance, in any case. She then plucks her kid from Tony’s lap and possibly perches the latter high up in her arms like before as she stands up, to Tony’s utter relief – the kid’s a _menace_!

He finds why she’s doing that when they’ve gotten pretty close to the… village?… and he can see more of the androgynous human-like aliens – except not in swimsuits and fliers, this time – blocking the path.

And then, almost as one, they drop to their knees and execute a bow like Dr. Tioma once performed to him, with a chorus of “Laufey-Queen,” before they get back up to their feet – perhaps after a signal from the alien mum behind him – and remove themselves to the left and right, forming an… impromptu?… honour-guard escort.

Tony’s been welcomed in various ways by various peoples, but this is the first time he’s receiving _this_ , though second-hand, and… it’s… well, thrilling.

Still _doesn’t_ beat maintaining his own name, though, if it’s somehow the alien mum’s – Laufey-Queen’s? – plan instead of just happenstance.

But, as long as she doesn’t ask…, ` _Whee! I’m a **king**!_`


	14. Therapy

“Last time I checked, he wasn’t this small,” Tony mumbles, nudging the alien mum seated beside him on the big cushion on the cold stone floor with his elbow. His eyes are glued on the kiddified Loki, who’s now more like _toddlrified_ Loki, running – pattering, scampering, slipping – here and there chasing a bright red-and-white ball as the frosties queue for their meals.

She nudges him back. But, being _far taller_ than he, the elbow plonks the side of his head instead… with more force than necessary.

“Ow!” he complains.

“Call Loé ‘she’, if you cannot call them ‘they’,” the prickly mum blithely says.

He glares up at her. But, before he can say or do anything, she murmurs, “What do you know of how and why one would revert into a smaller size and younger mind?”

He shrugs. “Humans can’t really revert, ‘sept in mind; as a kink, or could be for therapy I suppose.”

“It is the latter,” she confirms, her voice – as androgynous as her looks – barely audible in his ears. “Loé needs to heal, in all ways, and I encouraged them to revert. I only showed the way. They reverted further by instinct.” Her tone is bittersweet.


	15. Implications

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for speculation and some implied unpleasantness in the past. Things may or may not be true; but, in any case, sentient minds are their own enemies, sometimes.

Tony gulps, wincing. “So… you mean… he’s – _she’s_ – _that_ hurt?” ` _Not wonder Brucey could smell the insanity from feet away!_ `

“Nobody truly knows. Not even they. Maybe not _especially_ they.” The mum’s voice sounds terribly brittle, now. “It was _too easy_ to convince them that I meant well. I _did_ mean well, and I do, and I shall, still, but….”

` _But it shows how **desperate** the poor sod was for affections, and how little she’s shown that in the past, most likely,_` Tony finishes for the poor mum. ` _Damn it. We’re more alike than I thought!_ `

And then the ball somehow leads the kid back to their cushion, and she trips flying into her mum’s waiting arms, and, after a lengthy cuddling session, the latter _passes her, ball and all, to him_.

Tony stares wide-eyed at the mum. He doesn’t think he _can_ fulfil her implicit wish for him. Not in a million years or more. Not when his best fatherly example is _his childhood butler_.

She stares quizically at him, _then excuses herself to fetch them some food_.

He wants to shout for her not to leave him alone, but then remembers that _children have ears and aren’t dumb_.


	16. Confrontation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Allusions to thought-of or past sexual contents at the beginning.

Tony feels somehow uncomfortable sharing a bed immediately with the alien mum… whose name he’s never asked… and her kid. Especially in her place. Even if they do nothing but sleep. Even if the kid’s _not_ Loki… which is just wishful thinking.

He’s shared a bed with plenty of people, and for things _other_ than sleep, but this feels… different. He can’t – _doesn’t want to_ – delve into _why_ , let alone explaining it to the mum.

But he can’t escape both physically and the explaining part, sadly, apparently. Because…

“Where are you going?”

…Laufey-Queen’s standing on the other side of his ATV when he arrives there in what he _thought_ was his stealthiest mode. And she’s _definitely_ being Laufey-Queen, at present, with that _highly displeased_ look back on her face.

“Um, to my home nearby?” he offers, wincing when a small face peeks from behind her legs, looking right up at him with green eyes so alike her mum’s, radiating _disappointment-hurt-betrayal-anger_. ` _Damn it. Is she playing me?_ `

“And you did not tell us because?”

` _Ow. Avalanche Laufey’s about to bury me twelve feet under._ `

“We’ll meet again tomorrow?” Tony half-offers, half-excuses himself. “Um, I’m kinda tired, so, could you… move over?”


	17. Domesticity

Tony can escape back to his Northern Alaska bolthole _only_ after promising to return by the next morning.

He has to repeat the same promise again and again and again and again, each night.

He can’t just chat with the mum, at that, when they’re together, because she keeps sicking her kid on him.

Laufey-Queen – “Fié,” she insists on being called – makes the meals, and Tony has to chase down, trap or otherwise _coax_ her little blighter so that he can _feed the little maw_. And _that_ , _before_ he can eat, while the smug-cat mum enjoys her moments of peace with her own meal. And then she gets to cuddle her spawn, while a poor, exhausted him wearily trudges through his _totally well-earned_ meal.

It’s… kind of… nice, though, when, near the end of the eighth day, the little blighter comes scrambling up his lap when he’s dozing under the shade of a tree, with a big bowl of berries in her arms for the two of them. He just… doesn’t know what to feel, when Fié captures the moment candidly and joyfully adds it into her archive of… some sort of bendy metal sheets that can store short videos.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The television series mentioned here is not mine, of course, nor will it be crossed over with this story in any point of it.

Ten days and Tony’s _heartily fed up_ with his enforced babysitting duty.

So, when Fié’s occupied with her royal duties elsewhere, he brings her little brat to his bolthole.

And they watch a marathon of _Masha and the Bear_.

And brainstorm ideas.

And plot.

And subsist on popcorn and pop tarts, because both are the easiest to make and won’t disrupt their planning.

Weeeeell, after all, at least according to JARVIS, Loki in the Norse myths is _supposed_ to be “the god of mischief,” among others. Tony’s just helping along, giving ideas, and having fun in the process. Fié can’t fault him, too, since he’s bonding with her kid!

And then, he aims the grinning little imp at her mum when the latter comes to fetch her, before skedaddling back to _human_ civilisation.

But, sadly, knowing he’s back in town, Pepper traps in meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting.

And Fury’s boyband gives him disappointed looks, individually and collectively, except for his missing science bro.

And then Fié _and_ her kid accost him.

Right as he exits the board room.

And the latter _throws up all the fastfood on him_.

And Pepper _congratulates Fié_ for “domesticating” him.

_DOMESTICATING_! _HIM_!


	19. Inquisitions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a reference to _Unexpected Reinforcements_ here.
> 
> There is also a brief expression of a certain point of view down the chapter, and I would remind you that the views held by characters in a story are not necessarily the author's.

Fury barges into Tony’s Malibu home _again_.

Only to threaten him to “behave,” because _now_ Fié’s apparently recognised globally as _the ruler of Antarctica_ , where her people have dwelt since the Ice Age.

“You called her and her people invaders, directly or not, when they came and helped us,” he points out wryly. “Isn’t that a greater offence than being her friend?”

Fury scowls. “Aren’t you her brat’s father?”

Tony laughs, though there’s little mirth in it. “I wouldn’t burden my DNA on anybody.”

Fury looks _severely_ doubtful, somehow, but Tony has another thing in mind. Grinning wickedly, he challenges, “I’ll give you a million bucks if you tell it to her face – that her kid’s a brat.”

Fury skedaddles, soon after.

But, _un_ fortunately, Tony can’t relax, then, because Captain “sanctimonious” America _and_ Pepper hound him about if he’s treating “the poor woman” well, if they’re married or not yet, why they haven’t invited anybody or at least announced it if they’ve been married, and why would he subject a woman to “disgrace” and “the poor child” to ridicule by her peers if “the parents” aren’t married yet all this while.

He’s the one skedaddling now.

_Back_ to Northern Alaska.


	20. Invaders

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, there is a brief reference to _Unexpected Reinforcements_.

Tony returns from an afternoon out at a small waterfall not too far away from his new favourite home with Fié and her kid to find Fury’s boyband – minus Brucey – tied up and kneeling on his lawn, surrounded and watched closely with glaring eyes and itchy fingers by a bunch of **milaðen** , back in their swimsuits and bare feet.

“Huh, whatcha do?” he inquires quizzically to the Avengers, with Fié’s little blighter clinging to his back like a baby monkey and watching the spectacle avidly.

The Avengers just… glare.

Especially Clint.

At Loki – Loptr or Loé, Fié keeps insisting him to call the little shit.

_Just_ as the little brat’s overprotective, cuddle-hungry mum notices it, too.

Clint’s got fair complexion, tanned by long days under the sun, but he turns bone-white under that colour _pretty fast_ when Fié aims her own glare at him.

Tony _preens_. ` _I got an awesome friend with an awesome glare!_ `

The glee doesn’t stay long, though, unfortunately, because the leader of the swimsuited **milaðen** then reports that the Avengers _tried to break into his home_.

His own glare joins Fié’s, aimed at the invaders, all four of them.

He feels… _hurt_ , by their action, somehow.


	21. Battlesuit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for a mention of post-infancy breastfeeding and naked swimming.  
> Reference to the strange garb of Laufey's folks during the Battle of New York in _Unexpected Reinforcements_.

Tony joins the still-swimsuited **milaðen** out on the lawn some time after the Avengers got deported. Fié’s having one of her cuddle sessions with her kid, and he doesn’t want to disturb them, not to mention it’s also when she’s _breastfeeding_ the latter, but he can’t get rid of what the Avengers did – _would’ve done_ , if the **milaðen** weren’t there.

“Why’re you all in swimsuits?” he asks the leader, quieter and much more subdued than his wont.

“Swimsuits?” They cock their head, look down at themself, then look quizzically at him. “No, this is a battlesuit, **Aslakonnar**. We do not wear any kind of suit to go swimming, do we?”

“You go barefooted into battle?” Tony’s flummoxed. “And where’d you keep your weapons?” He _shan’t_ touch the idea of going swimming naked, not now, perhaps not ever.

“ _We_ are the weapons, **Aslakonnar** , or we ride a vehicle that is armed with weapons.” The **milaða** is equally flummoxed. “We could retrieve items, also, from our pockets, and the direct connection with the ground or our vehicle makes it much easier to draw strength from them, or manipulate them to our purposes. Does **Aslakonnar** … not… remember?”

Tony flinches. ` _This reincarnation thing again!_ `


	22. Defence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reference to past violence.

Tony doesn’t have time to curse his new circumstances, wallow in it, or both, as quite a few missiles suddenly appear on the horizon, _streaking towards his home_.

Dread mixes with fury and bubbles hard in his heart. ` _What did we do to deserve this?!_ `

“Use it, **Aslakonnar** ,” the **milaða** standing beside him murmurs, just loud enough for his ears, as if they know – or maybe they _do_ know? – what he’s feeling. It echoes somewhere deep in his mind, where the other echoes of _the before_ came from, before he met Fié again and got semi-trapped in a weird relationship with her and her too-cute-and-too-wily-to-be-permitted kid.

And, for once after… some time ago, an echo comes up, accompanying the suggestion. He’s standing here, on cold-but-not-frosted ground, a puny human half-sheltered by a bunch of exceptionally tall aliens; but he’s also somewhere else, bare-footed and clad only in a loincloth, standing on blood-slicked ice, a particularly tall not-human defending a bunch of frightened children alongside a few other defenders, raising his power-coated hands and shooting something that encases a few bombs streaking towards them with ice _and more_.

For once, he does just that.

And it _works_.

Then he blacks out.


	23. Death-Defying

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reference to near-death situation.

Tony wakes up not anywhere on Earth, he reckons, judging by how ice-layered the room he’s in seems to be, though thankfully not where he’s lying on. Strangely, though, he doesn’t feel frozen _at all_. He feels rather _warm_ , in fact.

He can’t contemplate this mystery further because, just as he’s thinking of getting up and exploring, what _feels_ like Fié slinks in from the left without a sound and approaches him.

But when she comes into view….

“Uh, Fee?” he lets out.

Then blinks.

Because his voice _rumbles_.

Not the voice of Tony Stark, for certain!

And the one looking down at him _definitely_ doesn’t look like Fié. They’re _blue-skinned_ , _hairless_ , with _glowing, pupil-less red eyes_.

But they _do_ somehow feel like her….

Before he can inquire further, though, the blue Fié-feeling somebody verbally bears down on him, berating him for being so reckless with his own life and not thinking of… her?… and “Loptr.”

“You nearly _died_!” she cries. “If I didn’t bring you here, if we did not get the things on your chest out in time, if Ava did not evoke your change in time….”

He stares bug-eyed at the ceiling. ` _Nearly died?! And… the chest…?!!_ `


	24. Alien

Living without the presence of the arc reactor embedded in his chest, the threat of the old shrapnel shredding his heart and the limitations of a human is… _super weird_. Tony can’t just go back to the before, though, and he _asked_ to everyone about it, _repeatedly_. Not that he wants to have his breaths and heartbeats determined by his arc reactor, but… this is just… _weird_! His balance and depth perception are totally shot to hell, he’s now _far taller and far bigger_ than his alien friend in exchange, his new-and-improved senses play havoc with him day and night, there are new likes, dislikes and urges he must contend with, it’s freaky to _also_ have female genitalia in addition to the blue skin and claw-like black nails and all, he feels all too comfy with all the ice and snow, and he can’t even really _sleep_ anymore – just some lucid dreaming thing!

Not to mention, there are _four_ little and not-so-little brats calling him _mother_!

He even got a ready-made, grown-up _little sibling_ in the package.

Rabid fans and equally rabid enemies, _too_ , or so Ava – the little sibling –tells him when his alien friend happens to be absent.


	25. Propagandas, Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reference to World War II propagandas. Alert for body negativity.

Laufey-Queen must go rule her people, and sometimes it’s not possible to bring her semi-permanent passenger with her, however much she tries to go round it. So Tony gets left with her kid in those times, though he’s barely adapted himself.

But, well, it’s a good time to investigate a specific case, too, because Not-Loki’s also changed, and not really for the better. The now-blue-skinned-and-all brat is now overly silent and avoids looking at or touching anybody, even herself, as if afraid and/or disgusted by her own nature.

He manages to crack the case only by accident, though, some time after he woke up in the body of this blue behemoth, which was – as he found by asking Ava – days after Not-Loki got turned. He’s exchanging histories of war with Ava while the bigger kids – he still baulks at calling them _his_ – are out wreaking havoc somewhere under the watch of their nanny, and the only ones left are Not-Loki and her “full-twins” counterparts. He’s arrived at the propaganda NAZI told the Germans that the Jews were monsters and homosexual couples were heriticks, when a tiny voice at his elbow suddenly pipes up, “So it is all a lie?”


	26. Propagandas, Part 2

“What’s it that’s a lie, kiddo?” Tony wiggles his nose – yes, now he _can_! – at the crumpled little face looking up at him, though he thinks he knows what the kid’s bothered about.

Not-Loki’s losing her courage, it seems, for she looks down and scrambles away. But Tony, anticipating the move, snags his hands round her waist and twists her round in the air to face him, in manoeuvres that he’s mastered now… after _lots_ of near-misses.

“The monsters,” the kid gives up, after flailing about futilely for a while, when he repeats the question.

He nods to that. “They say that so they got lots of people fighting for them. Soldiers fight wars, not politicians. To win the war, politicians need many people who _want_ to be soldiers for them, and they must keep those soldiers motivated cause wars aren’t short or localised. Fighting for an ideal’s a good motivation, next to fighting for people.”

It’s _super weird_ , teaching a _toddler_ about warfare, and he’s rather worried the mum would rail at him _when_ she finds out. But, at the same time, he got to remember that Not-Loki’s not an actual toddler… and her mum must remember it, too!


	27. Recovery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for claustrophobia and implied PTSD.

Tony’d usually scoff when people said recovery’s a long, bumpy road, especially before an arc reactor’s embedded in his chest. Even then, he’s too busy trying to keep himself and others alive and dealing with SI to feel in any way about his own recovery – or _series of recoveries_ , rather, after all that’s happened to him since 2010. He drank copious amounts of alcohol or slept round when things got too much, so he could function for the next while.

Now, though, he can’t do the first and somehow doesn’t want to do the second, so he’s _painfully_ feeling how long and bumpy the road to recovery is indeed.

Most days, he’s sort of all right, babysitting the kids and chatting with both Fié and Ava while trying to cope with his entirely new everything, without ever a wish to leave the not-so-big space they – _literally_ – call their nest. But sometimes… well….

“Úti.”

“Fee-Fee.”

“Tonyyyyy.”

“Hmm?”

“I was about to ask why you are suddenly out here. The children are terribly concerned. You suddenly ran out of the nest without saying anything.”

“Weren’t you ruling or something?”

“Have you had a traumatic experience with small spaces?”

“Just leave it, Fee-Fee.”


	28. Revelations, Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for PTSD and implied horrific violence and childbirth.  
> Reference to jotnar sexes and reproduction.

There’s an unspoken agreement between Tony and Fié: They won’t talk about each other’s pasts, especially the painful parts. Now that Fié’s broken the truce, though….

“Why’d you flinch whenever I touch your belly?”

Fié crumples in misery, just so.

Tony looks away to the snowfield before them; vindicated, but _also_ guilty.

Fié’s too damned cute and lovable most of the times for him to stay angry or overly irritated with, including now.

“Forget it,” he mutters, just as Fié scoots up and ducks under his arm, making him hug her sidewise.

She shakes her head. “No. We should,” she murmurs, her voice tight and clipped. “If we wish to continue this, to have what we had.”

She shifts again and gingerly leans across him, giving him full sight of her belly.

Her suddenly _heavily scarred_ belly.

“An ás bashed it with his enchanted mace when I was carrying Loptr and Loki,” she explains as she sits back up, not looking at him. “They were yet half to term. I had to get them out of the other channel, or they would die in the womb. As it is, I cannot bear children anymore. Not even by my own self.”


	29. Revelations, Part 2

Tony doesn’t know much yet about the norms, customs and everything else of the **milaðen** , into which category he’s been rather forcefully inducted. Judging by Fié’s total-wreck tone, though, unable to bear kids is quite a biggy here, however backward it might seem to a modern human _like he still is in mind_ , and perhaps something she’s been concealing from everyone else thus far.

Nevertheless, with how he’s been changed _without_ his consent, he’s reluctant to give _more_ of him away, even to Fié, even after her admission.

He can’t avoid the topic, sadly, because then, in a softer, smaller voice, she points out, “You flinch, as well, whenever I or others touch your chest.”

So, after a great sigh and a lengthy, awkward pause in which he sincerely contemplates just running away _anywhere_ for the rest of his life, he tells her about Afghanistan and Yinsen and the Ten Rings, about him dying from the arc reactor and his disastrous birthday and the ruthless-and-sneaky SHIELD, and about Obi’s betrayal and Pepper’s and Dum-E’s heroism.

“Flying the nuke, it wasn’t the first time I nearly died,” he finishes. “If your theory’s right, the déjà-vus should’ve begun two years ago, leastwise.”


	30. Beautiful

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for... well, one-sentence reference to implied sexual content at the end.

Following their mutual revelations, Tony and Fié _spokenly_ agree that Fié’ll earnestly seek alternative ways to return her precious reproductive system back to normal, while Tony’ll _equally earnestly_ try to get past his aversion of small, cave-like structures.

_But_ , while Fié’s managed to get herself whole again through a hodgepodge of treatments cobbled up together by the best healers she got in this winter wonderland _and_ the best doctors Tony could get who are _also_ sworn to utter secrecy, Tony himself gets rather spotty and abismal results in his attempts to _really_ acknowledge the place instead of the people. It really doesn’t help that the **milaðen** like caves and cave-like structures _so much_!

More often than not, after acknowledging where he is, he can only stay for an hour tops, and that’s _if_ Fié and the kids are piled on and round him.

And then, one day, Fié plays hooky and _deliberately_ brings him to a cave.

It’s behind a _flowing waterfall_ so rare in this place, though, and the inside, though small, is decorated quite like a home.

The sun-like moonlight filtering through the water is beautiful.

Fié’s repeated looks of ecstacy under Tony’s ministrations are even more so.


	31. Taboo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for mild (non-graphic, matter-of-fact) sexual content and culture shock + culture clash regarding sexual activity.

“Is Amma going to give us little siblings?” is one of the littlest midgets’ innocent _and hopeful_ question when they _and their twin_ catch Tony and Fié going at it in the nest when they _thought_ – or at least Tony, since Fié’s somehow _unsurprised_ – that they’d be undisturbed for the next while.

Tony squeaks, but Fié seems _totally unbothered_ , just irritated that her fun got interrupted.

“Not now, dear,” Fié grumps. “Now either be silent until Abý is finished or go away.”

Tony stares wide-eyed at his _mad, mad, mad_ sort-of beau, dumbfounded.

The speechlessness continues until _long_ after the deed is done. He daren’t show his face, either, after overhearing the kids chatting about _more kids in the family because Amma and Abý were exchanging seeds_.

“How… how can you be so… so _blasé_ about this?” he sputters when Fié fishes him out from his hideout.

She cocks her head. “’This’?”

“Having sex!” he hisses.

“You like it, I like it, I wish and need more children, you might wish for more later – it is natural, Úti.” She’s _still_ confused.

Tony buries his burning face in his hands. “ _Fee-Fee_ … it wasn’t private! Isn’t it… taboo?”

Fié stares, then… _giggles_.


	32. Differences

Fié spends much time and effort trying to make up for her response to Tony’s _legitimate_ complaint-and-question. Nothing works, though, because various individuals now seek to “ _re_ educate” him about various aspects of the culture, which are sometimes _so different_ from what he _remembers_ growing up with – as a _human_ , that is. The “sex incident,” case in point.

He’s never felt so different and so alone in a crowd. It’s even beyond the first time he got to go to school with people almost twice his age, when he began formal schooling.

Oddly… or maybe not… his sort-of ally in this is Not-Loki, whom he now calls Lolo to appease both her and her mum. They come from different backgrounds from each other, true, but they’re _also_ not raised in this culture. Lolo’s freaked out as well by some of the things people seek to “reeducate” Tony about, which she overhears more often than not because he keeps dragging her into such torturous sessions to keep him company.

And then, one day, they flee together under the little one’s guidance, back to Earth, to Ayshkashla – the hidden land in Northern Alaska where Tony re-met her and her mum – and to _civilisation_.


	33. Misunderstandings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for moderate violence at the second half of the double drabble and mild language.

Tony videocalls Fury from his bolthole, after he’s settled himself and his tagalong in, shifted into his human approximation, and enacted his previous arrangements.

Fury claims the attempted break-in was a _misunderstanding_ , and the missiles weren’t shot by SHIELD.

“Then how’d they home in on my location, not long after your lackies got booted off it?” Tony’s most _un_ impressed.

Fortunately _for Fury_ , a few **milaðen** choose this very moment to break into the room he’s in.

And, unlike the Avengers… who have been neutralised by the **milaða** guards, come to think of it, _these_ immediately blast away _at him_.

While Lolo’s _also_ running towards him from the cosy corner he set her in with a 120-colour packet of crayons and a ream of paper.

` _Are these the enemies Ava’s talking about?_ ` he wonders as he dives in to shield Lolo with his body. ` _Oh, shit. I got no good weapons here!_ ` JARVIS isn’t even installed in this house, except in the PC he’s using to videocall Fury just now, _which has just been **pulverised** by… something_.

Then one of the attackers manages to grip him and cries, “Farbauti Faukkistr-childe, you are charged with the kidnapping of Loptr Laufey-childe.”

` _Oh, shit._ `


	34. Self-Defence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for implied violence.

Self-defence was the second thing Tony learnt dilligently about after his body’s transformation, after **milaða** anatomy, physiognomy and biology. He learnt it only from Fié and Ava, true, but they’re pretty decent at these things anyway and it’d mean he got _secret_ weapons for just-in-case.

And one of the just-in-cases is apparently _now_.

The **milaðen** don’t have a weakness in the groin area, as their genitalia are protected and/or internal, even when in the “warm-weather form,” but it doesn’t mean they don’t have _other_ weaknesses.

The back of the neck where many of the nerves are gathered, for instance, and the naval area where a baby’s delivered through that’s supposed to hurt like hell like if a human male’s kicked in the nuts, and _many others_.

And Tony’s utilising _all_ of them, with the precision of a dilligent student and the fervour of somebody who needs to protect somebody else.

He transports the hogtied, groaning mess of assailants to the village square and dumps them there, with a terse, angry explanation to the villagers, then spirits the terrified Lolo to the waterfall with a pond near his home that they visited a few times before.

They need some cooling down.


	35. Reasons

A haggard and subdued Fié joins Tony and Lolo camping beside the waterfall-pond long after the sun’s set. Nobody says anything, but Tony proffers her a bowl of grilled chunks of apple and beef swimming in gravy and she tucks in, just so.

She says nothing till long after the three of them are snuggled side-by-side in the blankets and pillows, which Tony snuck back into his bolthole to fetch some time ago alongside the camping supplies. Then, when Lolo’s fast asleep, she murmurs in his mind, ` _Why did you come here with Loé without telling me?_ `

` _Why did you send those crazies after me?_ ` he grumps back.

She half-heartedly pulls at his nose, not with her hand. ` _You, first._ `

He reciprocates, with his hand, and ends up keeping the hand on her face as she’s leaning into it. ` _I’d been a human all my life, Fee-Fee. Never wanted to be other than a human. Then everyone shoved me into roles and a culture when I was **still** trying to cope with being **not** human. Now, why?_`

She turns to face him, her eyes glittering hard under starlight. ` _I sent them **only** to search for you. They will be punished._`


	36. Consequences

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies. I put the wrong chapter name for last chapter. It's fixed, now. The chapter name should be for this chapter.  
> Warning for discussion about death sentence as lawful punishment.

Tony tenses up. ` _Punished?_ ` Somehow, he doesn’t think the punishment’s latrine duty, given how hard Fié sounded at the end, matching her look. Somehow, he also feels pity _for the assailants_.

` _They and their families will never bother us again,_ ` she confirms, without really confirming anything.

Tony tenses up further.

` _You’ll kill them,_ ` he mutters, stupefied. ` _What… what about the ones with me when the missiles came? What about their families? All of them?_ ` He retracts his hand and scoots away, his mind a jumble of emotions and thoughts.

` _I shall hold judgement soon for the four **former** guards who assaulted you and Loptr. Their punishment will most likely be death,_` Fié reports, _matter-of-factly_. ` _Their families are being questioned. They will be released **if** they are found **totally innocent** in this crime, and **strongly advised** to behave as good citizens. The guards who were with you when the missile came were reprimanded and demoted for not defending the place before you acted so foolishly. The guard who triggered your foolish action was also removed from their last post and has been sent to work the vertiliser production. If they baited you to intentionally harm you, they would have been executed._`


	37. Law

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for possibly touchy discussion of differing law and punishment and perceptions on governance.

Tony stares wide-eyed at the person lying across from him. She feels like a stranger _again_ now. He thought he knew her rather well by now, but _no_ , she’s just swiped that illusion away.

` _Who made you jury, judge and executioner?_ `

` _Jury?_ `

` _Who made you the one who determines the validity of the accusation and decides on and executes the punishment?_ `

` _My birthright, my training, most of my subjects._ `

` _You’re…. There’s no parliament or something like that, in your place?_ `

` _The first and last time it was formed, when none of the rulers were available, you were sentenced to excruciatingly slow death through centuries, without any mitigation or a chance to change the punishment, because they did not delve deeper and were eager to exercise a power that was novel to them. Would you like to suffer it again **and bring us with you**?_`

` _Hey, I’m **not** that person! And it’s just one time, no? What about if they’re more level-headed about the power? What about if **you** did a huge blunder?_`

` _Advisors are there for a reason. Audiences, as well. I do not sentence people to death lightly, Úti. Neither do I give out summary execution._ `

Tony looks away.


	38. Monarchy

Until just now, Tony never seriously contemplated the “queen” part of Fié’s name. She never quite behaved queenly, anyway, in his vicinity. Besides, Earthgard’s monarchs are just figureheads, nowadays, so he assumed it’s the same on Ýmirheim.

Now, to find that she’s the kind of monarch that _medieval_ monarchies sported….

He swallows.

Looking up at the stars above, he reaches out to her mentally – and how _freaky_ is that, now he’s getting used to this means of communication! – and asks, in a smaller and more subdued voice than he intended to sound, ` _What about me? What am I in your court?_ `

` _My spouse, of course,_ ` she huffs. ` _I thought you knew that? Even if you did not remember that part of your previous lifetime yet? Have I not been treating you as my spouse?_ `

` _No, I mean, in the kingdom – well, **queen** dom, I suppose._` The casual mention of reincarnation’s freaky, but the prospect of weighty responsibilities _even more_.

She frowns, and it’s clear in her voice as she replies slowly, almost tentatively, ` _No. No specific role but for those intrinsic in an ordinary unequal marriage pact. You were the Grand General of Ýmirheim, but it was… before._ `

Tony slumps, relieved.


	39. Future

Tony ends up extracting a promise from Fié to allow him to confront the assailants himself, also the one who goaded him to stop the missiles.

But what then?

` _Live,_ ` is Fié’s simple answer, but Tony doesn’t think it’s that simple.

` _I’ve got Dad’s company to handle,_ ` he points out. ` _Don’t wanna leave this planet forever, too, n’I need money for that. SI provides me that, s’well as entertainment._ `

` _You could oversee our settlements here,_ ` Fié offers. ` _Ýmirheim could fund you for that and more._ ` She sounds unhappy with the prospect, though.

More, when he shakes his head. ` _Not the overseeing type. More like the inventing type._ `

` _You could always invent items at home,_ ` she half-complains, half-wheedles.

He shakes his head again. ` _Not home. Not there. **This** is home, or it can be, but not there._`

He reaches out a hand blindly and runs his fingers through her hair when she grumps plaintively, ` _Why? What wrong have we done to you?_ `

Déjà vu teases at the edges of his mind, offering up a faint echo from the before, loud yet distant.

He flees from it.

He relaxes – _a little_ – only when she promises to _try_ to rein in the family.


	40. Past

Tony stares askance at Fié when she then… _woos_ him, for a _cuddle_.

It’s that dorky, and cute, and _painstaking_. Just for a _cuddle_.

` _You think I’m that mad at you? So you’ve got to win me over or something?_ ` He’s half-perplexed, half-amused.

But he caves in, anyway, turning to face her again and re-sandwiching the sleeping Lolo between them.

` _You felt so. And if you were, it would not have been the first time,_ ` she replies matter-of-factly.

He sighs. ` _Fee-Fee, how many more times do I need to tell you: I’m **not** whoever-that-was,_` he grumps, bopping the tip of her pert nose.

She scrunches up the nose in response. ` _It is hard to believe so, really, as you often behave just like you did, including just now,_ ` she points out dryly.

He huffs and bops her nose again.

Her answering tentative smile’s a nice sight after the weighty topics they’ve just escaped, though, he got to admit.

He got to admit, too, she does try to treat him as he _is_ , not as he _was_.

But still, ` _Just, don’t assume, please. Tell the others too: I’m **not** them. – You people freaked me out. Don’t wanna experience that again. _`


	41. Marriage, Part 1

Fié brings Tony to _yet another_ **milaða** settlement – in _Antarctica_ , of all places – and the people there treat him as just one or two steps lower than the prat, _including_ in regard to responsibilities.

“What did you tell them about me?” Tony accuses the first chance he manages to corner her in private.

“That you are my mate and spouse reborn,” is the answer, as Fié nuzzles Lolo’s ear till the latter squirms and squeals.

“Mate and spouse?” Tony raises his eyebrows.

“Mate by preference; spouse by marriage.”

“Aren’t they the same? And when did we hold a wedding? We didn’t even get engaged!”

“Engaged in what?”

“Engaged as in… a promise to marry, with a ring – or rings – and a party with family and friends to announce and celebrate it.”

“Oh. We only have one to denote a marriage, as it is rather rare and momentous. It is not every year that a new clan is born, after all. Although, after the last war, there have been many more marriages than ever. People flock together for security and comfort and to pool their resources together.”

Tony frowns. “Think you said, once, about unequal marriage or something.”

Fié looks… guilty?


	42. Marriage, Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay. I was travelling and immediately had to both settle in for 2 weeks and go places the day after.  
> This is my last available chapter, to. I d nt knw when I can add t it. RL is awefully busy this past week.  
> Warning for the chapter: Reference to murders.

“Ideally, a marriage is between equals,” Fié explains, cautiously. “The spouses are sharing _all_ resources, after all, and they are making a new clan together. However, there are exceptions, whether by cultural norms or by the rule of the Crown.”

“The rule of the Crown.” Tony’s heart sinks. He didn’t like it, when put in the context of law and punishment. He doubts now’s any better.

Fié’s even more cautious, but plods on, “The womb-children of the non-royal spouse or spouses in a royal marriage, if contributed by the royal spouse, belongs to the ruling house. Such can also happen on the lower strata, but rarely. This practise began during the rule of my grandparent, when their womb was cursed sterile for quite some time, and their womb-children were hunted down to be kulled by the curser and the latter’s brainwashed offspring. It is harder to track seed-children by one’s blood, yet they remain one’s children in a sense.”

Tony stares at the increasingly fidgety Fié, swamped by a flood of tangled emotions that he can’t – _doesn’t want to_ – tease apart and decipher.

He forgot – _managed_ to forget – that his previous incarnation _birthed_ sprogs.

And they _don’t_ belong to him.


End file.
